Pattern Breaking

The COO listened as the CEO and management team discussed their challenges and the way forward with advice and guidance from me. When he spoke he said to me “Susan, you’ll help us with pattern breaking.”

This was a big revelation for all of the senior leadership team. It recognizes that when a company is stuck, having difficulty moving the needle on revenue and profit, one of the keys to improvements is breaking their patterns of behavior. What used to work isn’t working; or they are doing things they didn’t actively decide to do. They just fell into habits that they need to break out of.

What patterns are so comfortable in your company that you’re hardly aware of them? It’s just the “way we do things here.” If your company is on a roller coaster or stuck on a plateau, and needs to move the needle, make a concerted effort at pattern breaking. Jettisoning the patterns and embracing something new will be just the jump start for momentum that you need.